Newly released: Anchorage School District Payroll

The Anchorage teachers union wants a 3% pay raise for its members. Fact: the median salary and benefits for a full time ASD employee is $ 90,506. Benefits account for 32% of this total.

In the interest of providing as much transparency as possible, the Alaska Policy Forum is posting the fiscal year 2016-2017 payroll for the Anchorage School District. This allows the citizens of Anchorage and Alaska the opportunity to view the compensation in salaries and benefits that your District employees receive from public dollars. These facts contribute to a more rational discussion on contracts and the costs of education. Remember, that salaries & benefits make up nearly 89% of the ASD’s operating budget. Also remember, you are the employer.

There are approximately 6,000 full-time employees; 2,982 are in the classroom including classroom teachers, special education, career technology, art, PE, and gifted teachers. There are 1,691 substitutes including teachers, clerical, teacher aides and special education. Additionally, there are hundreds more part-time employees.

The median cost of a full-time ASD employee is $90,506 (this excludes temporary and substitute employees). Median salary is $58,420 and median benefits are $30,941. For most positions, this is for nine months of work per year. The total cost for all ASD employees is $387,483,800 in salaries and $185,323,756 in benefits. So, one can see that benefits account for 32% of the total payroll costs. When the teachers’ union (AEA) members say they want a 3% raise, we must know all the facts.

Personnel costs are often assumed to be teachers but there are many other types of positions on the payroll. Here are FY16-17 median costs of some support personnel jobs.

Job Title

Total Median Cost

High School Principals

$160,203

Coordinators of Student Nutrition

$97,371

Senior Warehouse Specialists

$123,737

Instructional Coaches

$107,115

Facilities Maintenance Technicians

$111,715

High School Librarians

$110,198

Truck Drivers for Student Nutrition Center

$104,067

Auditorium Technicians

$124,458

Elementary School Lead Custodians

$76,705

K-12 Psychologists

$113,321

Elementary School Nurses

$100,688

Middle School (grades 7-8) Counselors

$108,780

Custodial Crew Chiefs

$85,542

It’s also important to note that employee benefits are not taxable. Assuming an employee is in the 15 to 25% income tax bracket and using an average 20% tax, then the median employee enjoys nearly $6,000 in tax-free benefits. Factoring in this non-taxable benefit, the median employee salary and benefits would be $96,160.

We believe that the most effective classroom teachers should be compensated and rewarded for their great work educating our youth. We also believe that every child should have an effective classroom teacher so that child can be successful not only in the classroom environment, but also successful in life.

Click below to download the Anchorage School District payroll for fiscal year 2017, sorted from the highest compensated to the lowest.